Platform: PC
Developer: Monster Games Incorporated
Publisher: Hasbro
Build: July 19th, BETA

INTRODUCTION:

Since 1994, there has only been one developer, Papyrus of Sierra Sports, which has had great success in developing NASCAR racing simulations for the PC. Even though there has been several attempts made by another developer (EA Sports) to get into NASCAR simracing territory, their fruitless attempts were somewhat annihilated by the simracing community at the various forums and newsgroups due to the lack of realism and overall performance of their products. Call it bashing or whatever you want it just seems that Papyrus has a very strong cult following in the simracing genre. As they see it as Papyrus is the "top dog" of racing sim developers. Let it be known that there is another developer, MGI, which is planning to release a racing simulation designed around you guessed it, NASCAR! Will this racing game be dissected by the mentioned cult? You bet!

A little information about MGI, these were the same developers that were a part of the Papyrus team until the mid to late 90s. After departing Papyrus, these individuals formed Monster Games Incorporated, a software development company, which was created by Rich Garcia. Now after telling you that from those two statements, you certainly know that these guys know what it takes to make a simulation! These guys are certainly no newbies since these guys are highly experienced in their fields. (The Papyrus cult trembles) Monster Games' first release was Viper Racing, which was depicted around the Dodge Viper. The game used Direct3D and their very own 3D sound derivative engine. The game was both an arcade and simulation and also had implementation of force feedback that was modeled exceptionally. The game's overall performance ran flawlessly on lowly machines without a person having to upgrade, which tells me how good their optimized code really was at that time. Enough of the old and time for new, eh?

MGI's next release is NASCAR Heat, which is circumvented around the NASCAR 2000 season. NH has your typical of racing a single race and Championship season(s) for those off-line excursions with different driving physics (Normal and Expert) and different AI settings (Easy, Novice, Medium, Hard, Pro, Custom 100-105%). Of course, there's also multiplayer capability yet only having up to three human opponents in this build though what's planned for the final release is at least eight. As you can see, NH has all the basic necessities for hardcore simracer but there's more that I will get into those later on in the preview. Yet, what makes NH very innovating (rather ingenious I might add) when comparing to all simracing games are two new elements racing. They are "Beat the Heat and Race the Pro". The latter pits you against one of the several drivers in a one-on-one racing situation at different tracks with option of using one of the two driving physics models. How many times have you ever thought how would you fair against any WC driver? As for BTH, this type of gaming, there are several chapters in which they possess challenges. In order for you to go onto another chapter you must complete the desired tasks at hand. As you succeed, your rating of "rookie" goes up to hopefully to "champion". Again, I'll divulge more into this, so let's move on!

SIDE NOTE: You know the last time I reviewed a game published by Hasbro Interactive was Falcon 4! It's been awhile so be prepared for a long one!

TEST SYSTEMS:

• Act Labs Force RS
  
  
• Intel P3 450MHz
• PC133 256MB
• Pioneer 6x DVD-ROM
• Xitel Storm Platinum
• Guillemot 3D Prophet

• AMD K7 950MHz
• PC133 256MB
• Pioneer 6x DVD-ROM SCSI
• Turtle Beach Montego II
• Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS

• Intel Celeron 466Mhz PPGA
• PC100 128MB
• Pioneer 6x DVD-ROM
• Diamond MX-300
• ELSA Erazor II (TNT2)

INTRO MOVIE:

After you have installed NH, you still need the disc to play; I see no problem with doing this, as developers need to make money. Once you have launched the game, you are presented with an introduction video that is quite humorous as you see some of the out takes of several WC drivers during the video shoot of the game. Plus, you get a glimpse of what the game's action is all about, door-to-door, bumper-to bumper stockcar racing. I would like to add that I like the perspective of the tachometer for MGI! From talking to the producer of the game, Ed Martin (Another ex-Papyrus employee), told me that they are going to add family dedications to the drivers of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin that have passed away earlier this year. Silence please.

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